Full Tilt Poker Tour Ambassador Dermot Blain opened from mid position for 3,500 and found one caller in the big blind, Walid Bou Habib. They saw a flop of and both checked. Turn and they both checked. River card and when Habib checked Blain bet 2,500 which was good enough to win another small stack. We haven’t seen Blain involved in any huge hands so far today but he steadily accumulating and looking calm and confident.
Frenchman Benjamin Pollak limped under the gun for 1,600 which made for a small chain reaction of callers. The cut off joined in, Dominik Nitsche on the button called and the big blind checked his option. on the flop and it was checked to Nitsche on the button. The German player bet 3,000 and the big blind quickly folded. Pollak raised it up to 11,000, the cutoff folded. Nitsche made the call however and the dealer had to do some work again. She put out the , making for four to a straight on the board. Pollak gently knocked on the table and released his hand rather quickly after Nitsche bet 16,500.
"You had two pair or something" Nitsche asked Pollak who admitted he had king jack. Nitsche told his French opponent he wasn't all that happy with the turn as he was stacking his new found chips.
Eoghan O'Dea opened for 3,400 and faced an all-in from Finnish PokerStars player Markus Kivipuro for 28,000. O’Dea made the call and flipped over his against the of Kivipuro. The board ran out and Kivipuro doubled up.
There's a reason one of the tables gets chosen as the feature table and that's because there's one or more famous poker players on it in general. The table on the live stream just now was stacked with familiar faces. WPT winner Taylor Von Kriegenbergh, Bellagio Cup winner Shannon Shorr, long time French grinder Nicolas Levi and Partouche Poker Tour (amongst others) winner Ole Schemion are all household names for the diehard poker fan.
Two of them just got eliminated though. Von Kriegenbergh busted both Shorr and Levi in one big preflop all in. Von Kriegenbergh with had both Shorr () and Levi () covered. The board didn't improve anybody and Von Kriegenbergh was stacking chips for some time.
In the last level Rhys Jones was down to just 1,300, for just 100 chips more than a single big blind. He now has over 100,000 - 62.5 big blinds - for a stunning comeback.
His latest boost came in a pre-flop cooler against Nandor Solyom, Jones four-bet all-in for 48,000 with aces and Solyom called with pocket kings. No cowboys appeared in the community cards and Jones is up to 102,00 whilst Solyom slips to 20,000.
Artem Metalidi opened on the button for 3,200 and faced a three-bet from Marc-Andre Ladouceur, a member of PokerStars Team Online. The big blind folded and after eyeing his opponent Metalidi made the call. They saw a flop of . They eyed each other up a bit more before Ladouceur bet 6,500. Time for a few more coy glances from Metalidi towards his opponent, and a raise to 14,000. Metalidi didn’t like that too much and mucked.
With the board reading Israeli player Ori Hasson was facing a big decision. He had checked from the hijack and was facing a 102,000 bet from his neighbor, EPT Deauville runner up Walid Bou Habib who was seated in the cutoff. Hasson thought about it for some time but eventually decided against calling.
"Show the bluff" said table mate Jonathan Duhamel who was talking to Paul Volpe at the time. "No bluff" Habib replied, "I never bluff." Duhamel laughed and said to Volpe: "He wants to show". Habib couldn't restrain himself and at the last moment turned his cards up before mucking them; . "That was a pair though right?" Duhamel asked rhetorically, "that's no bluff!"
and both checked. Turn 
and they both checked. River card 
and when Habib checked Blain bet 2,500 which was good enough to win another small stack. We haven’t seen Blain involved in any huge hands so far today but he steadily accumulating and looking calm and confident.
on the flop and it was checked to Nitsche on the button. The German player bet 3,000 and the big blind quickly folded. Pollak raised it up to 11,000, the cutoff folded. Nitsche made the call however and the dealer had to do some work again. She put out the 
against the 
of Kivipuro. The board ran out 
and Kivipuro doubled up.
had both Shorr (
) covered. The 
board didn't improve anybody and Von Kriegenbergh was stacking chips for some time.
. They eyed each other up a bit more before Ladouceur bet 6,500. Time for a few more coy glances from Metalidi towards his opponent, and a raise to 14,000. Metalidi didn’t like that too much and mucked.
. "That was a pair though right?" Duhamel asked rhetorically, "that's no bluff!"
